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The sun was slowly coming up on the horizon when Ri Jeong Hyeok quietly opened the front door of the Switzerland home he shared with Yoon Seri. After taking off his shoes, his padded feet made no sound as he checked the living room for any signs of her staying up and waiting for him, only letting out a sigh of relief when he found no one there. He then peeled off the scarf around his neck and his long coat, leaving him in a cream sweater and dark-washed jeans, and made his way towards the kitchen for a bottle of water.
Seo Dan and her mother were in town for a music conference the younger woman was invited to. They contacted him through the number his father provided and asked if he was free for dinner and some drinks. He was too polite to decline. He had invited Seri to come with him, knowing that he will feel better if she were there, but she decided not to go. While she had no ill feelings towards Dan, it felt wrong for her to join a gathering she was not explicitly invited to.
“Don’t worry about me,” Seri assured him with a warm smile before placing a swift kiss on his lips. “Go have fun with your ex-fiancée and her mother.”
That should have been his first sign.
While Seri did let him go, he did make a promise a long time ago over soju that he wouldn’t go out drinking, especially with other women. Dan was gracious enough to agree that it was late when he brought it up, but Go Myeong-eun had him in her vice grip. She wanted him to stay and tell them more about his travels, expressing her wonder at the thought of him going out of town almost every single month.
“What other countries have you been to, Jeong Hyeok?” Myeong-eun asked before taking a sip of her wine.
“Oh, here and there,” he answered vaguely with a nervous chuckle. He noticed the secret smile Dan was wearing and immediately caught on the idea that while she knew his secret, her mother didn’t. “I have been travelling mostly to where the orchestra wants me to be.”
“That is amazing,” the older woman gushed before placing a hand on her daughter’s arm. “Dan here might be up for an audition with the National Symphony Orchestra next year.”
“Really,” he said with interest. “That’s great. Congratulations.”
Dan gave him a firm nod. “Thank you, but nothing’s set in stone yet.”
He nodded, bracing himself to bring up yet again that he should get going. “Well, tonight has been wonderful. Thank you for inviting me –.”
“Oh, of course,” Myeong-eun interrupted with a wave of her hand. “We must have more wine. Waiter!”
Presently, Jeong Hyeok made his way towards the sunlit kitchen for water and was stopped short at the sight of Seri peeling an apple with a knife. There were several crushed bottles of beer littered around on the countertop. It felt like déjà vu, but the nostalgia that panged through is heart was quickly replaced with anxiety when her sharp eyes snapped up to meet his.
“You were out late.”
The accusing tone of her voice made him gulp. His mind tried to come up with a better story than the truth but also knew that nothing gets past Yoon Seri. He decided to go with the truth. “Well, you see, Dan’s mother wouldn’t let me go. I tried to say goodbye multiple times, but –.”
“Ah,” she interrupted with a humorless chuckle. “So, she’s Dan now.”
He blinked for a couple of seconds. “What?”
She narrowed her eyes at him, studying him for a moment, before saying, “Wait a minute.” She slid off the stool she was sitting on and made her way towards him, thankfully leaving the knife on the counter. She leaned in, making him stiffly lean away from her, and took a long whiff of his shirt.
The look of betrayal on her face was enough to make his brain go into haywire.
“You drank out with your ex-fiancée?”
“Seri-ah, it’s not what you think,” he tried to explain but she cut him off again.
“Wah,” she scoffed, crossing her arms. “Ri Jeong Hyeok, I can’t believe a righteous man like yourself would betray a pinky promise. I knew I told you I was drunk then, but I remember everything you know!”
“Go Myeong-eun was there and wouldn’t let me leave,” he told her, desperation in his voice.
"Right,” she laughed in disbelief. “Tell me. How is Seo Dan? Still single? Still pretty?”
Jeong Hyeok closed his eyes in exasperation before answering her, “You and I both know I don’t see her that way.”
“Well, isn’t she?” she asked again.
“Isn’t she what?”
“Single? Pretty?” Seri pointed her forefinger at him. “Don’t lie to me.”
He sighed, feeling exceptionally tired after a long night. “Yes, she’s still single, but I don’t know what this has got to do with –.”
“I knew it,” she mumbled, turning away from him slightly. “She’s trying to win you back.”
“What?” he asked in surprise. “No, she’s not –.”
Seri seemed to have forgotten he was there and started to talk to herself. “I mean, of course, why wouldn’t she? You’re probably the most eligible bachelor back in North Korea. People must be talking about you two. You used to be engaged, and now you’re both single. Why, it’s only common sense that you two should be together.”
“But I’m not single –,” he tried to say.
“With that pretty face and all that designer clothing,” she continued to say without hearing his words. “And you say that she’s a celebrated cellist in North Korea, and you’re a pianist for the National Symphony Orchestra. You two are literally a match made in heaven.”
“Ya, Yoon Seri!”
She jumped at the loud boom of his voice that seemed to echo through their house. Jeong Hyeok had to calm himself down before asking her seriously, “Seri-ah, don’t you have a little more faith in me?”
Seri seemed to have softened at his words. She bit the inside of her cheek and refused to look at him, an indication that she was still not backing down. “Besides,” he added, his tone gentler than before. “Didn’t Seo Dan help you with your second brother?”
Her demeanor changed at the realization. “Right,” she whispered. “Gu Seung-jun.”
He took a step towards her and lifted her chin to meet her eyes. “We just talked,” he explained, and finally she was listening. “And I apologized for the way I acted towards her before. We don’t see each other often in Pyongyang, so her mother insisted that I stay a bit longer.”
“And you were too polite to decline,” she pieced together, her tone lighter than before, making him relax. He can only shrug his shoulders in response to which she let out a quiet breath of laughter while shaking her head. “You’re too kind, Jeong Hyeok-ssi.”
She met him halfway and clutched the side of his sweater. “It’s not that I don’t have faith in you,” she added quietly. “It’s the women I don’t trust.”
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Seri-ah.”
She moved forward and was close enough for him to wrap his arms around her. “You’re every girl’s dream come true,” she told him, tilting her head to the side. “So, forgive me if I get a bit jealous when you’re in the company of some other girl.”
He tried to fight off his smile at her sweet words and opted to place a kiss on her forehead. “You’re my dream come true,” his low tone making her blush. He caught her left hand with his. “And I promised to love you forever, didn’t I?”
The glint of the engagement ring he had replaced her gold ring with was enough to bring out the smile eyes he loved so much. “You did.”
“So,” he said, leaning closer. “There’s no need to be jealous.”
Before she can answer back, he closed the gap between them with a soft kiss. She melted into his embrace and let out a satisfied sound as he pulled her closer. He’ll never get tired of having her close to him, and the fact that they weren’t together every single day of the year makes every sweet moment with her count even more.
“Let’s go to bed,” he invited afterwards, stroking her hair. “Did you even sleep last night?”
“No,” she hesitantly admitted. Seeing that he was about to get upset, she immediately added. “Well, would you if I went out with one of my ex-boyfriends?”
“Well, no, but –.”
“Exactly,” she said, looking satisfied as they walked towards their bedroom. “I thought so.”
“You haven’t, right?”
“Haven’t what?”
“Gone out with your ex-boyfriends?” he clarified for her as they made their way up the stairs. “In Seoul.”
Seri bit the inside of her cheek and his arm around her immediately drops back to his side. “Ya!” he cried.
“I’m kidding!” she assured him, laughter bubbling out of her chest. “Seriously. Don’t you have a little more faith in me, Ri Jeong Hyeok-ssi?”
“You look well.”
Seo Dan’s sharp eyes glanced up to meet his before her lips curled up in a rare smile. She looked the same as before: polished from head to toe, not a strand of hair out of place, designer clothes ironed without a crease in sight.
“You, too,” Jeong Hyeok replied, relieved that a conversation was happening between them. Myeong-eun had gone to use the restroom and in her absence was the silence he was used to whenever he found himself in the company of the younger woman. “How is Switzerland this time around?”
She looked pensive for a moment before she answered him with, “It’s brighter than I remembered.” He must have looked confused because she immediately added. “Whenever I think of Switzerland, I just remembered hating the scenery.”
“Hating the scenery?” he echoed in surprise. “How is that possible?”
She pursed her lips together before replying, “You were too busy taking pictures of it that you forgot you were with me.”
Jeong Hyeok looked surprised at her blunt admission and slowly sat up on his seat. “It’s all in the past,” she interrupted when he opened his mouth to speak. “And I’m glad that I have a second chance of experiencing Switzerland. Not many people do.”
“Even though it is in the past,” he told her, folding his hands together on the table. “I still do owe you an apology. The way I treated you before really was inexcusable. There is a better way of treating a fiancée, arranged marriage or not, and I wasn’t a gentleman about it. So, I apologize.”
She looked stunned before she flashed another rare smile at him. He wondered how it was possible to see her smile more within the hour than the ten years he had spent engaged to her. “Thank you,” she said quietly. “That actually means a lot.”
He returned her smile easily and leaned back on his seat, an unexpected weight lifted from his shoulders.
She placed her hand on the bottom of her wine glass to move the dark liquid inside. “So, how is Yoon Seri?”
“She’s fine,” he answered her, the thought of the South Korean heiress bringing a smile on his face. “She’s actually in the middle of negotiations at the moment. She’s expanding her business here.”
She nodded slowly. “That’s convenient.”
“What do you mean?”
She gave him a meaningful look. “Aren’t you being assigned here for a semi-permanent position by the orchestra? News travel fast in Pyongyang.”
He tried to contain his smile but failed. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
She rolled her eyes at his coy tone. “Does she know?”
He shook his head. “I’ll be telling her tonight.”
Then Myeong-eun returned with a fresh bottle of wine.